Chido Obi-Martin scored 32 goals in 18 games for Arsenal’s Under-18s (Getty)
Ahead of the game, Ruud van Nistelrooy has already confirmed that academy wingers Jeremy Monga, 15, and Jake Evans, 16, will be on Leicester’s substitutes’ bench at Old Trafford.
But when asked about the prospect of giving Obi-Martin minutes in the first team, Amorim said: ‘He’s doing his job, he’s improving, he’s playing in the youth teams, and we have also other players that can play in that position.
‘Rasmus [Hojlund] and Josh [Zirkzee] are there, we bought these two players, so we need to improve them and then sometimes the confidence can change a player.
‘We will see in the end of the season, but, until then, we have two strikers that can score goals.
‘They proved it in the past. Let’s see if we can improve as a team, to help them to score goals.’
More trophies could potentially following with Liverpool still involved in the FA Cup, through to the last 16 of the Champions League without the need for play-off and holding a commanding lead in the race for the Premier League title.
With a formidable squad boasting a clean bill of health and Mohamed Salah enjoying arguably his best ever season, Liverpool could be forgiven for feeling confident of a clean sweep.
Not that Van Dijk was having any of it last night after he played a key role ina victory over Spurs that only served to underline that gap that currently exists between his team and the chasing pack.
Asked about Liverpool’s chances of clean sweep, Van Dijk instantly dismissed former Watford striker Deeney’s question which prompted the CBS pundit to apologise.
‘I’m sorry I have been forced to ask the questions,’ Deeney said.
He then asked: ‘With the quadruple on the horizon how do you manage everyone being level every single day?’
Van Dijk then paused before offering a more measured response to his initial ‘ah come on’.
He said: ‘The expectation that we have is to try and win every game and not quadruple or thinking about what could be there in May time.
‘Every game that we play from now on is going to be difficult up until the end of the season.
Dominik Szoboszlai scored Liverpool’s third (Picture: Getty Images)
‘Hopefully we’re going to be in every competition and that’ll be fantastic that’s what we work for. We just have to enjoy the whole ride altogether.
‘Not only us as a group of players as a group with the defence as well, look at us ourselves, don’t look at others, just worry about ourselves and look that’s the only thing we look at. I say that to the team and to the boys as well.’
Slot, meanwhile, hailed a special moment after guiding Liverpool to Wembley but echoed Van Dijk’s sentiments by insisting his thoughts were already on the next game.
Van Dijk headed home Liverpool’s fourth on Merseyside (Picture: Getty)
Rather than basking in his latest success, the Dutchman is already thinking about another competition ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup trip to Sky Bet Championship side Plymouth.
The Liverpool manager said: ‘It’s pleasant, although if you know me a little bit, my thoughts are more on Sunday already than thinking about the final in the month.
‘Our performance was something that pleased me. Reaching a final should always be special, even for this club, because this club is used to playing finals, but still we are working very hard every single day to try to improve players and the players want to improve themselves every single day.
‘But we’re also in this business to play finals, although we know how difficult the final is going to be because we faced Newcastle already and they were very impressive yesterday as well.
‘But there are many games to be played before that final and this is where our focus should be at.’
Amorim has so far had to make do with makeshift solutions in the left wing-back role but with a natural option now at his disposal, he will be eager to get him into the team as soon as possible.
With Jonny Evans also still absent, January signing Ayden Heaven is another possible option. The 18-year-old was brought in from Arsenal, regarded as a signing for the first-team to provide cover for Martinez. Amorim could opt to fast-track him into his starting XI.
Ayden Heaven could also make his debut (Picture: Manchester United via Getty Images)
Amorim dropped both Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee from his starting XI against Palace last Sunday, instead trialling Kobbie Mainoo in a false nine role.
Zirkzee and Hojlund have not scored a goal in 2025 (Picture: Getty Images)
The experiment failed but given neither striker has found the net in 2025, the United boss may be tempted to further tinker with his attacking options.
Altay Bayindir will hope to return in goal after his heroics in the third round win over Arsenal at the Emirates.
How United could line up on Friday night…
United will be coming up against Leicester for the third time this season having already put eight goals past them in league and Carabao Cup.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was in charge for those games as interim boss and will now find himself back at Old Trafford as the Leicester boss looking to inflict more misery on his old side.
‘The work started on Monday, which is quick. The Champions League last year helped us to work on those two-day turnarounds. We do tweak things depending on the opposition,’ Howe said.
‘We felt we needed more height in the team, we wanted solidity at the back and we had to change in order to win the game.
Jacob Murphy scored Newcastle’s opener at St James’ Park (Getty)
‘The players followed the instruction to the letter, they deserve the credit. Fabian had big distances to cover in his job, tracking Declan Rice whether he dropped low or went wide or went central. At times he went right across the pitch. He is a good athlete and is very capable of doing it.
‘We wanted to get pressure on them [Saliba and Gabriel] and in order to do that we had to get bodies in the right areas and press high – that is how we decided to do it.
Newcastle will play either Liverpool or Tottenham in the Carabao Cup final (Reuters)
‘You know you are playing against elite players and one mistake can make things difficult. We had to be ourselves, be front foot. If not then it can quickly be 1-0 and 2-0 and then you are on the back foot.
‘We had to work on set plays as their set play threat is so high. In the reverse fixture there were some moments where we got a bit lucky. Again our team selection was based on having height, especially without Joelinton, we needed Dan Burn, Fabian Schar and Sven Botman. We defended the set plays really well today.’
Meanwhile, Gordon also revealed that Howe instructed him to alter his position in order to put more pressure on Arsenal’s two central defenders.
‘Everyone knows we don’t change much. We are always going to press and try to put teams under pressure,’ Gordon told BBC 5 Live.
‘The gaffer altered it a little bit, I played inside a bit more, and they struggled with it on the counter attack because they’ll couldn’t really pick me and Murph up and Alex [Isak] does what Alex does. I think the gaffer deserves all the credit.’
Sutton believes Amorim has created a ‘real problem’ and has warned that Zirkzee and Hojlund could down tools for the remainder of the season.
Former Premier League striker Sutton, who now works as a football pundit, told the BBC: ‘If you are Zirkzee or Hojlund and you’re seeing Mainoo – who is a really excellent footballer but isn’t a centre-forward or false nine – being picked, you are thinking: ‘How on earth is he playing in front of me?’
‘That is a real problem. Amorim is basically telling the pair of them that he doesn’t rate them in any way, shape or form.
‘He could lose these two players, mentally, for the rest of the season now and they might think about not applying themselves.’
Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee could down tools (Picture: Getty)
Former Arsenal star and fellow pundit Theo Walcott added: ‘Managers sometimes do this to test players.
‘They want to see whether the player is with them or not. It’s going to be interesting to see how Manchester United do cope with this.
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‘I just think it’s an interesting dynamic for Amorim to make, particularly if he is so fixed on this formation.’
‘It could have been a signal to the people above him to let them know that he has no faith in the two players he has tried there,’ Parker said.
‘It’s like having two goalkeepers on the bench. Every fan knows that when a manager puts two keepers on the bench, he’s making a point to those above him that he needs someone. I think it could have been that.’
Arsenal failed to make the Carabao Cup final after a 4-0 aggregate defeat against Newcastle(Credits: AP)
Newcastle couldn’t resist taking a thinly veiled dig at Mikel Arteta after Arsenal were humbled at St James’ Park and slumped to a 2-0 defeat in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
Kai Havertz was the main culprit three weeks ago when the Germany international missed a succession of chances that envious Arsenal fans would have loved Arteta’s long-time transfer target Isak to have been on the end of.
Rather than attribute any blame to his only recognised centre forward, Arteta suggested that the Carabao Cup ball, manufactured by a different company to the one that is used in Premier League matches, played a part in a night to forget for Havertz.
The Arsenal boss was roundly mocked for that rationale and it his comments were clearly not forgotten by a Newcastle after they completed a 4-0 aggregate victory with Isak and Gordon to the fore again.
Posting a picture of the Puma ball nestled in the back of a net, the Newcastle X account pointedly added the caption ‘the culprit’.
After Arsenal’s raucous celebrations that followed Sunday’s 5-1 win over Manchester and the way in which their players and fans mocked Erling Haaland, the beaten Gunners could do nothing else but take defeat on the chin.
Newcastle’s message on X was a clear dig at Mikel Arteta (Picture: X)
Alexander Isak tormented Arsenal again (Picture: Getty)
‘We had so many expectations to believe that we could turn it around. We didn’t generate momentum, especially in the first half, the game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied,’ said Arteta after the game.
‘Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin. We didn’t capitalise and in the next action, they scored the goal and obviously the game shifted and then you need to stay cool to score a goal as early as possible.
‘We didn’t manage to do that in the first half, had another big chance, and then in the second half, we started to struggle as the game went by.
‘We didn’t generate enough situations in the final third and the game started to get away from us.’
William Saliba endured a difficult night up against Alexander Isak (Credits: REUTERS)
Last night’s game represented Arsenal’s 11th match in the space of 33 days and appeared to be one challenge too many for Arteta’s men.
‘We need to swallow this one, it’s a tough one and we had a lot of expectations,’ added Arteta.
‘We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London, but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch a few minutes ago.
‘Now we have to look forward, first of all I think this is going to be a painful one, and when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for. ‘
